An outbreak of H1N1 Swine Flu was reported in Mexico in April 2009. By the end of May, it had spread across the U.S., with all 50 states reporting cases.

Geneva  Swine flu is now formally a pandemic, a declaration by U.N. health officials that will speed vaccine production and spur government spending to combat the first global flu epidemic in 41 years.

Thursday’s announcement by the World Health Organization doesn’t mean the virus is any more lethal — only that its spread is considered unstoppable.

Since it was first detected in late April in Mexico and the United States, swine flu has reached 74 countries, infecting nearly 29,000 people. Most who catch the bug have only mild symptoms and don’t need medical treatment.

WHO chief Dr. Margaret Chan made the long-awaited declaration after the U.N. agency held an emergency meeting with flu experts and said she was moving to phase 6 — the agency’s highest alert level — which means a pandemic is under way.

“The world is moving into the early days of its first influenza pandemic in the 21st century,” Chan said in Geneva.

Dr. Thomas Frieden, the new head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Atlanta that he does not expect widespread public anxiety in the United States as a result of the declaration, noting it came nearly two months after the virus was identified.

For many weeks, U.S. health officials have been treating it as a pandemic, increasing the availability of anti-viral flu medicines and pouring money into a possible vaccination program. And scientists have grown to understand that the virus is generally not much more severe than the seasonal flu.

“That helps to tamp down any fears that may be excessive,” Frieden said at a news conference — his first as CDC director.

But the virus can still be deadly and may change into a more frightening form in the near future, and so people should not be complacent, he added.

So far, swine flu has caused 144 deaths, compared with ordinary flu that kills up to 500,000 people a year.

The pandemic decision might have been made much earlier if WHO had more accurate information about swine flu’s rising sweep through Europe. Chan said she called the emergency meeting with flu experts after concerns were raised that some countries, such as Britain, were not accurately reporting their cases.

Chan said the experts unanimously agreed there was a wider spread of swine flu than was being reported.

She would not say which country tipped the world into the pandemic, but WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the situation from Australia seemed to indicate the virus was spreading rapidly there — more than 1,300 cases were reported by Thursday.

In Chile, authorities have identified almost 1,700 cases to WHO.

Many health experts said the world has been in a pandemic for weeks but WHO became too bogged down by politics to declare one. In May, several countries urged WHO not to declare a pandemic, fearing it would cause social and economic turmoil. At the time, WHO said it would rewrite its pandemic definition to avoid announcing one.

But with the recent surge in cases across Europe, Chile, Australia and Japan, the agency was under increasing pressure to acknowledge a pandemic.

“This is WHO finally catching up with the facts,” said Michael Osterholm, a flu expert at the University of Minnesota.

David Ropeik, an expert in risk perception and communication at Harvard University, said the “soft buildup” to declaring swine flu a pandemic has been helpful.

“That allows people to get used to what is otherwise a scary word, understand the particulars of the disease, and that should mean reaction will be a little more information-based and a little less emotional,” Ropeik said in an e-mail.

WHO will now recommend that pharmaceutical companies make swine flu vaccine. The agency typically recommends which flu strains drug companies should use in the vaccines. In a global outbreak, WHO also advises whether companies should make pandemic vaccine.

The decision to make pandemic vaccine is a gamble. Most flu vaccine makers cannot make both regular seasonal flu vaccine and pandemic vaccine at the same time. That means they must decide which one the world will need more.

Hysteria can't be good for an elderly person who has damaged their health with alcohol and tobacco for many years. Best get your affairs in order, bub. You've one foot in the tomb and the other on a banana peel.

hey, this article didn't mention the head of WHO, a very fine Chinese babe, think named Margaret Chan. she really does something to me:
you give me fever
when you kiss me
fever when you hold me tight
Fever
In the morning
Fever all through the night

Everybodies got the fever
That is somethin you all know
Fever is'nt such a new thing
Fever start long ago

Romeo love Juliet
Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her
He said Julie baby your my flame

Now give me fever
When were kissin
Fever with that flame in you
Fever
I'm a fire
Fever yeah i burn for you

Captain smith and pocahontas
had a very mad affair
When her daddy tried to kill him
She said daddy oh don't you dare

He gives me fever
With his kisses
fever when he holds me tight
Fever
I'm his misses
Daddy won't you treat him right

"and pouring money into a possible vaccination program."
"Possible"?
Why does this make me think of a Government Motors (GM) bailout?

"The decision to make pandemic vaccine is a gamble. Most flu vaccine makers cannot make both regular seasonal flu vaccine and pandemic vaccine at the same time. That means they must decide which one the world will need more."

Or is that "...they must decide which one that will be most profitable"?